Earthquake Had No Effect On Missoula’s Water System

After last week's 5.8 earthquake that was felt for hundreds of miles away from its epicenter near Lincoln, the superintendent of Missoula Water Company said the system suffered no damage from the temblor.

Dennis Bowman said technicians examined all the systems immediately after the quake was felt in Missoula.

"The only thing we did was we had our production technicians go around to all our facilities, the pumps and reservoirs and did a visual inspection," Bowman said. "Everything went through just fine with no issues at all."

Bowman said his staff also checked water production in the system.

"Normally, if there's a big main break, we'll see it on our system that the production just jumps up at that time, and nothing indicates at all that the production jumped up during the quake. We check the water production system every morning, several times during the day and again just before everybody leaves at night. All the production, the reservoir levels and all the zones are checked."

Bowman said anyone who thinks there may be a leak in their water line should contact the Missoula Water office immediately at 552-6700.

"Just call the office and we'll send out a service technician to determine if they have a leak in their water line," he said. "Especially if you can hear water running in the basement or noise in the service line, we'll send a service technician and they'll do a pressure check on the line, and if they can't identify it from the service line to the house, we'll send the distribution guys out with a computer and determine if it's a main leak or a leak between the main and the curb box."

Since the customer owns the service line from the residence to the main, any repairs are the responsibility of the homeowner.

Bowman said the water system stretches across Missoula all the way to the Butler Creek area to East Missoula.